Richard Neal, of Acton, is seen here alongside a photo of the USS Thresher currently on display at the Springvale Public Library. Neal, an engineer, had originally been scheduled to be on the ship when it sank 50 years ago this spring. (courtesy photo)

ACTON — When Richard Neal learned that the AMVET’s post in Sanford was planning a dedication ceremony to honor the 50th anniversary of the loss of the USS Thresher, he decided to attend. The day the submarine USS Thresher went down, April 10, 1963, taking with it a crew of 129 sailors and civilians, is etched in Neal’s memory. Neal said he should have been on the submarine that day, but due to circumstances, he was not.

A 1959 graduate of the University of New Hampshire, Neal worked at the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard in Kittery for 27 years. He was the lead engineer on the USS Thresher’s major sonar systems in 1963 when the nuclear powered attack submarine was at the shipyard for an overhaul and repairs, if necessary.

In February of that year, Neal had surgery and was out of work for six weeks. During that time, a co-worker, engineer Larry Whitten, had “covered my systems,” Neal said.

Neal returned to work a few days before the submarine was scheduled to go out for sea trials — testing and evaluation of the submarine’s systems. It was part of the job to accompany the crew on sea trials for a new or refurbished vessel and several civilian engineers were on board the Thresher on April 10, 1963 to provide support if anything went wrong.

“A lot of people in the office didn’t like to ride sea trials,” Neal said. He said he didn’t mind them and had been out on submarine sea trials before.

Neal said he offered to do the sea trials on the Thresher, but Whitten said that he would go since he had worked on the submarine for the previous six weeks. Neal said he took the weekend “on call” duty, so Whitten could stay home with his wife and family.

“Come Monday morning, he went to sea and I went to work,” Neal recalled.

Around 2 p.m., Neal said, word started to spread among shipyard staff that something had happened to the Thresher. Skylark, the surface ship accompanying the submarine on the sea trials, had lost contact with the Thresher. Within a few hours, it was apparent that the USS Thresher had sunk during deep-diving tests about 200 miles off the New England coast, taking all 129 crew members with her.

Neal said three of his co-workers lost their lives that day, including the engineers whose desks were on either side of his, Whitten and Daniel Beal Jr., both electronic engineers.

Also lost was Sanford native and Sanford High School graduate Robert Dan Prescott, a marine engineer employed at the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard.

Neal said he and his wife went to visit Whitten’s widow and children the next weekend, but doesn’t remember much about the visit.

As the 50th anniversary of the loss of the USS Thresher approached, Neal decided to donate a framed photograph of the submarine he had kept for years to the Springvale Public Library and had a plaque made to accompany it.

The sinking of the Thresher and the loss of its 129 crew members remains the worst submarine disaster in history. The tragedy resulted in the U.S. Navy’s creation of SUBSAFE, a rigorous program of design review and safety testing “that has ensured no submarine through the process has ever suffered a similar fate ...,” according to a proclamation signed by Maine Governor Paul R. LePage to mark the 50th anniversary of the loss of the USS Thresher.